I am sorry to interrupt, Madam President, but with respect to the nickname, it may seem irrelevant but perhaps there will be more foundation: Which jungle, which country, what year? He says colleagues in the jungle were calling him by a nickname named Abor and there is no more foundation.

Well, we heard that Charles Taylor and his rebels were fighting in Liberia. Then at one time we heard over the radio that he was saying that they were using Sierra Leone as an ECOMOG base to launch attacks in Liberia, so Sierra Leone will face the bitterness of war one day.

Well, after we had been captured we were with them in Bunumbu for about some time - for about a week or so. Then they decided to send us to Pendembu. All of us young men and the young women and some aged men, that we should go and train at the training base to fight for our country.

Well, yes, at that time we were up to about a hundred or so people who were sent. We were mixed. The young ones, the small boys, women, men, the youths, adults. We were many up to about a hundred or so, those of us who were captured and sent.

Then what happened, Mr Witness, when you arrived in Bunumbu training base - sorry, I should have asked you something before. In which district is Bunumbu - is Pendembu, sorry. In which district is Pendembu?

Well, when we got there we met our companions at the base. They had already opened the base. We met our companions training at the base. They too were at the base and so we too went there, but when we went we met categories of people at the base like the boys, they were put in their own group, they called them the SBU. The young girls or the young girls, they put them in a group and they called them the WAC's. We the men who were there, we also were put in our own group. That was how we were at the base when we were training.

We were undergoing a military training. They trained us how to shoot a gun, how to manoeuvre, how to take cover, concealment when you see your enemy. They taught us all those tactics, how to attack a town.

Well, like the training instructors whom we met there, like the ones that we met at the base, they were speaking the Liberian language to us. So we knew they were Liberians who were training us at the base and that they were the instructors at the base.

Well, it was not Krio, because when a Krio man speaks you will know that he is a Krio man, or a Sierra Leonean. Or when a proper Englishman speaks you will know that an Englishman has spoken. But in Liberian language when the person is speaking it is mixed, it has slangs, it has English slangs and, you know, things like that. Their own language was different from ours. It was from that that I knew they were Liberians. Even their names that they mentioned to us at the base, you knew that they were Liberian names. We didn't have such names.

Okay, so we will move on, Mr Witness. I think you answered the question already. Now, Mr Witness, during your time in Pendembu what, if anything, did you learn about where these Liberians themselves were trained?

Well, all I knew about them was that they had come from Liberia. They said that was where they had come from. That was where they trained. That they had come to us, they were the Special Forces. That's what they were calling them, Special Forces. So those of us who went to train at the base, they called us junior commandos because they said we were doing training in our country, we were junior commandos. Those who came, they called themselves Special Forces from Liberia.

Well, yes, like I recall CO Big Darling, one who was called Big Darling. And there was another called CO Nyamator and there was another with a nickname called CO After the War. So those were the kind of names they had. There was also another called Rebel Baby, CO Rebel Baby.

Well, we used to see some other Liberian bosses come to the base. There was another called Sam Tuah, CO Sam Tuah. He was so frequent on our base. Sam Tuah and another who was called General Dopoe and another called General Mustapha. Those were the three of them who were very frequent on our own base. They normally came and returned. They were the people that we saw come there frequently.

So my question was who was in charge and then you spoke about these three individuals coming to the base. Are you saying that these people were in charge of the base, or were they just visiting the base?

Madam President, I notice from the LiveNote transcript that the last response given by the witness speaks of a training base in Bunumbu and I am wondering if it is the interpretation, because so far we have been talking about a training base in Pendembu.

Well, the Mustapha was also a Liberian Special Forces, but we understood even from his tongue, the way he was speaking, that he was a Gambian. He was not actually a Liberian, because his own tongue was different. The language he spoke was different. Even the instructors who were there with us made us to understand that General Mustapha was a Gambian.

Well, the vanguards, the way we heard about them was that they were people who were trained in Liberia before they entered Sierra Leone, so they said they were the vanguards for the RUF war. That was what they told us and that was what I understood from them.

Like, for instance, some of the vanguards who came. Like, for instance, the time we graduated from the base when I was attached to somebody where I went to work, I met a vanguard there and he was the commander and he himself told me that he was one of the vanguards that entered.

Well, just like I said, after all they sent me back to Bunumbu where I was captured and even when we were on the base, closer to our graduation they will ask us where we want to go because they will say that the areas where we were captured, we knew the terrain better and so they will decide to send us to those areas and the area I was sent to, Morris Kallon was there as commander and some other fighters. So I went there, I was fighting together with him and I met some other vanguards there with him too.

Well, at that time I met Morris Kallon there as the commander and then - anyway, there were some other vanguards, but I cannot actually recall their names now, those who were there with us, because I was working directly with Morris Kallon and that was target C, Bunumbu. That was where I was.

Mr Witness, you told us that you were abducted by the RUF and then you were sent to the training base and then you told us about a number of Special Forces coming to visit and you told us that you believed Sam Tuah, who was Special Forces, was in charge of the training. Now, at the time of your training in Pendembu, to your knowledge who, if anyone, was in charge of the RUF?

Well, at the time we were being trained there were some songs that the instructors taught us to sing. They were praising Foday Sankoh and they were saying Foday Sankoh is our President in Sierra Leone. So from that point we knew that he was the RUF leader at that time.

Well, my first time seeing Foday Sankoh was when I had graduated and when I was sent to Bunumbu to work with Morris Kallon. At a point in time I travelled with Morris Kallon from Bunumbu and then he had a talk with Foday Sankoh where Foday Sankoh was based. They referred to the place as the Mansion Ground and that was where I saw him and that was the first time I knew him.

Well, there was another song that they taught us in which they told us they referred to him as Lion. They will say, "Lion, hey, Lion, hey", and when we asked them they said it was Foday Sankoh who was referred to as a lion, that he was the lion of the revolution that they entered with, and in that song also I remembered.

Well, like during the training - actually when we were captured at Bunumbu and when they took us to the training base and whilst we are training, some of my friends and I actually decided to escape because the type of training that we were undergoing and when they told us that we were going to fight a war, we found it very difficult and moreover I was a college student at that time and I was thinking about completing my course, but whilst we were planning, at a point in time on the base two recruits amongst us, because we were all recruits at that time, they decided to escape. They attempted it. They almost escaped, but they were caught and when they caught them in the bush they brought them back to the base. They were stripped naked and they tied their hands on their backs. They referred to that action as tiebay [phon]. They were seriously beaten and brought back to the base. So when they arrived on the base they called for a formation and when they called for a formation all of us would come and then we will assemble and stand in categories: The SBUs would be in their own category, the men and the women. So they brought the two of them in front of us. So we thought it was an unfortunate situation for us and that was the time CO Sam Tuah came. CO Sam Tuah came.

Sorry to interrupt you, but just pause there one second. You said that some of you tried to escape and then two people were caught and you said "they" caught them. Who caught these people trying to escape?

Whilst we were on the base they had base securities. The instructors were there and they had the base securities who looked after us, those of us the recruits. They were there to ensure that no recruits escaped from the base, so I think those securities saw them trying to escape and they caught them and then they brought them back to the instructors and they handed them over. So where we were, those of us the recruits, where we were kept, they referred to the place as the billet. So whilst we were in the billet we heard them calling for formation, formation, formation. So all of us ran to the assembly ground, because as a recruit when you heard that you should run to the assembly ground. When we got there they brought them in front of us and they were tied. They had beaten them up seriously.

Then CO Sam Tuah came and when he came they explained the situation to him and then they told him that these men were trying to escape. So right in our presence at that time we were there standing and CO Sam Tuah turned to us and told us and he said, "Now I am going to set an example for all of us standing here that anyone amongst you who attempts - and now we are here, we are trying to train you guys to fight for your country and you are trying to escape, so now I will set an example and if anybody attempts like these guys have done we will do the same thing to you."

And right in my presence that was my first time that I saw that kind of thing happen in my presence, the killing of a human being in our presence. CO Sam Tuah took out his pistol and shot the two men, the two guys in our presence and both of them went down to the ground. And he turned to us, he started pointing fingers at us that, "If anybody attempts escaping like these people did I will do the same thing to you."

So right from that moment I was so panicked on that base, because we had been thinking about escaping from the base then this kind of thing happened in our presence. So that was one of the things that happened in my presence on that base that created so much panic in me over the whole training that was going on in Pendembu.

So he turned towards some of the recruits and asked them to drag the guys to the other side and then the two of them, they dragged them to a nearby bush. I can't tell whether they were buried now or they only threw them into the bush and came back. So that was one of the things that happened in my presence at the base.

Mr Witness, before you said that you believed the securities working for the trainers caught these people. To which group, if any, did these securities belong that went after these people trying to escape?

Well, when we went to the base we met them there. We met them there and they were all working together with the instructors. They were all working together with the instructors. We met them there and I want to believe they were those same NPFL fighters who had come.

Well, that was the word that they used. When they captured somebody for such a thing they would put your two arms on your back and then they will use nylons to tie your hands on your back. They will tie you up a kind of way that you will even find it very difficult to breathe. So that was how they referred to the action, tiebay.

Well, at that time the base was in Pendembu and they were even trying to establish another base in Kailahun because of the escapist issues and Pendembu was very close to the front. So they decided that because we were almost the last people who were trained on that base in Pendembu they decided to take the base now to Kailahun so that they will prevent people from escaping. So that was where the next base was established.

Well, they also underwent similar training, but theirs were not as difficult as those of us who were adults. They were there. They also taught them how to shoot. They trained them so many other skills like us, but theirs were not as tedious as ours.

Well, I can't give you an exact figure, but we are many. We were many, because after our graduation there were front lines like Baiima and Quiva and then Bunumbu. So those of us who came from the Bunumbu area, we were sent there. Those who came from the Baiima and Quiva areas, they were sent there respectively. That was how we were sent.

Well, at that time I believe that it was one of the deployment areas. Because like the Quiva area was referred to as target A, and Baiima which faced Daru barracks was called target B, and Bunumbu which was where Bunumbu Teachers College was and it was on the main Kono Highway going towards Kono, it was called target C. So those were the codes that they used to refer to the targets.

Well, for those of us the junior commandos who went there, and when we went there we met some Liberian fighters who were there together with Morris Kallon. We were all there. We were all a mixed set of people. We met them there, but we were there with them.

It was because those men always created a line of difference between us. Those of us who were trained in Sierra Leone, they said we were junior commandos. And those of them who came from Liberia and they were Liberians, they said they were NPFL forces. So that was how they categorised us.

Well, when we went there and whilst we were there we were working there, but amongst us most of our men who were there with us were not actually educated. So there were times - there was a time that an issue of administration came up and then they asked me that I took up a pen and start writing. And since then Morris Kallon picked me up and he asked me to serve as his adjutant. He said I will now stay with him and I will serve as his adjutant. So since then I was now assisting the target C area acting as adjutant to Morris Kallon.

Well, I did not know about all those things, because at that time it was not something permanent. The adjutant or clerk to Morris Kallon was not actually permanent. But since I started working with him I want to say I was in fact the only person who served permanently with him. So at any time now an administrative business came to his camp he will call on me. Although I met some other clerks or some other people who were writing for him, but they were not actually educated. They were not versed.

Like for instance my colleague junior commandos with whom I graduated from the base, some of them - some of them used to write actually but they would not correctly spell the words and they would not put them into good sentences in fact.

Well, like in the case of Morris Kallon he could read, but I cannot say he was actually better educated, but if someone writes and then you read it out to him, he will be able to understand it and sometimes if you give it to him he could read the ones he could understand, but there were commanders who were not actually educated.

Well, for instance, Morris Kallon because he was the person that I actually directly worked with in the C target. I was working directly with him in that target. I can recall him, because, for instance, in the case of the other Liberian fighters I used to scare them [sic], because I in fact never used to go close to them. I did not know much about them. But they were not actually involved in administrative jobs.

Well, with the past experience I had from the training base, when those two recruits were killed in my presence, I had the feeling in mind that they were people that somebody will not joke with to that extent, because they were quick to kill somebody. So I had that feeling in me. I feared them. That was why I said so.

Well, at times when he received calls, like for instance he used to receive calls from Pendembu, at one time I recall when Foday Sankoh came to Pendembu he called him and when he called him he asked me to go with him to Pendembu. So at that time we used to walk to go from Bunumbu to Pendembu, then we crossed the Moa River and went there. I went with him. When we went there we met Foday Sankoh on the Mansion Ground. That was the first time I went and saw him. So all the details of the discussion he had with Foday Sankoh, he called me and asked me to write them on papers. So those were some of the things I did together with him. I used to go out with him and return.

Well, at one point in time Foday Sankoh invited him to go to Pendembu for briefing and he sent a letter to him. I even read the letter out to him. He gave him directives that he was writing the letter to report to him at Pendembu, with immediate effect, for briefing and then he asked me, he said, "Adjutants go with me", and then I went with him.

It was Foday Sankoh in the letter he wrote to Morris Kallon. The subject was directive. He gave the directive to Morris Kallon to report to him at Pendembu for briefing and he, Morris Kallon, asked me to go with him to Pendembu and then we went.

The question involves facts not on the record. Foday Sankoh is not said to have used the word "directive". The witness is using "directive" generically to refer to the fact that the letter contained instructions to Kallon to report to Pendembu.

Well, when the letter came - when Foday Sankoh sent the letter and when Morris Kallon received the letter, he called me, the adjutant. He gave the letter to me to read it out to him. He said the Pa had sent this letter. He said the Lion sent this letter and that was how he used his name. After Foday Sankoh he said the Lion. When I opened the letter I saw on the top of it "Revolutionary United Front, Sierra Leone" and I saw "from CIC in charge" and I saw subject - he wrote against it "directive" and he dated it. I read the body of the letter out to him, that he was to report to him in Pendembu for briefing.

Mr Witness, it is now the normal time for us to adjourn for the day. We will be starting court again tomorrow at 9.30. I must advise you that now that you have taken the oath you must not discuss your evidence with any other person until all your evidence is finished. You understand what I say?